Butamax lands key isobutanol patent

In Delaware, Butamax announced the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted the company Patent Number 8,129,162 for isobutanol from renewable resources.  This latest patent was issued from a series of applications covering modified KARI enzymes that optimize production of biobutanol by Butamax’s proprietary microorganisms.

These microorganisms are engineered with the isobutanol biosynthetic pathway invented by Butamax that includes five enzymatic steps that convert sugar to isobutanol.  The KARI enzyme performs the second step of the pathway which is fundamental to achieving high biobutanol yield.  This latest invention is essential to best cost of manufacture position.